Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention generally relate to a fence post and in particular towards fence posts that are designed to secure or grasp fencing wire without the need for manual attachment.
In particular, the fence posts of embodiments of the invention are designed to be driven into the ground by an automatic or semiautomatic process and the wire strung between the fence posts is inserted through the fence posts prior to time of installation into the ground.
Description of the Related Art
The installation of fence posts and fencing wire can be an arduous and time intensive task, especially when the fence to be installed spans sections of several kilometers at any one time. Such a situation is not uncommon in large farms or pastoral holdings where fence lines can extend for tens or hundreds of kilometers.
The manual insertion of fence posts into the ground can take a team of operators many days to complete, each post being driven into the ground separately, aligned and subsequently having the fencing wire material either attached to the fence post or inserted through an appropriate sized aperture or slot within the fence post.
A group of workers may go about the process of setting up a fence by first installing a series of fence posts, for example five individual fence posts, and then after the fence posts have been inserted and fixed into the ground a fencing wire, either a plain wire or barbed wire material, is then attached to the fence post by the use of nails clips or other retaining mechanisms that are known. Alternatively, the fence post may have a notch within which the fencing wire is inserted into a fencing wire retaining element is then attached to the fencing wire and clipped on to the fence. Each retaining member then has to be attached individually, one for each wire element or string attached to the fence post, which may mean anywhere from six to seven attachment points on any single fence post.
Such an approach takes considerable amount of time and also requires at pre-set intervals that the fencing wire be tensioned to ensure that it does not go slack over the span of the fence posts.
Automated or semi-automated post installation machines have now been developed that has substantially automated the driving of fence posts into the ground such that a single operator may now control a post driving machine that can take an individual post from a rack or magazine of posts and at an appropriate predetermined location drive a selected individual post into the ground using, for example, a pneumatic driving means. A single worker can therefore take a stack or magazine of fence posts and cover substantial distances in a single outing saving considerable time and effort.
Such post installation devices may also have pre-strung fencing wire passing through the fence post such that as the fence post is taken from the rack or magazine, fencing wire is already in place through the holes in the fence post.
As the post installation apparatus travels along then this fencing wire is fed out through the machine and posts hammered into place such that the operator is then constructing a complete fence system, consisting of both the fence post and the pre-strung fencing wire through the hole in the fence post, directly into the ground. In this way a completed fence can be prepared with a lot less effort.
For a wire in a fence the longer the span of unrestrained wire, the greater the ability of that wire to accept external loading from, for instance livestock, wildlife or flood waters.
Hence, a fence wire constructed free of longitudinal restraints over, say 100 meters can accept externally applied forces 10 times those that can be applied to a fence wire that has positive restraints at 10 meter centres.
The downside to a fence without positive restraints over hundreds of meters, is that if a wire or multiple wires are broken in one bay (between posts) by, say livestock, wildlife, or falling branches etc., then the entire section of fence will be loosened and become ineffective.